The son of Sontag and sociologist Philip Rieff ("pop," below), whom Sontag married at 17 then divorced in 1958, David has written a memoir of Sontag's painful final days. What I will say, though, is that when I wrote this book, I thought a lot about what I'd say and what I wouldn't say. Indeed, many of the apparently rebarbative aspects of Sontags personality are clarified in light of the alcoholic family system, as it was later understood, Moser writes, and he goes on: Her enemies, for example, accused her of taking herself too seriously, of being rigid and humorless, of possessing a baffling inability to relinquish control of even the most trivial matters. If she had survived the bone-marrow transplant (as she had survived the dire treatments for two earlier bouts of advanced cancer), would she have been reconciled to dying of something else later on? Rieff asks. I found a way to be present but not look at the way she had become physically. Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster. No, not intimidated. Refresh and try again. I was stunned by how dismissive she was of those dazzling essays that she wrote in the '60s and that made her famous. David Rieff: His mother "was no more reconciled to extinction at 71 than she had been at 42." Sigrid Estrada When she was diagnosed with cancer for the third time, the writer Susan Sontag. Don't speak about him to others (e.g. Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 68 years old? I don't think that's a particularly strange or masochistic thing to say. By contrast, it would seem that your mother had anything but a good death. "Heady?" He has also been a Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science & Religion. She hoped that I and other people in her life would give her reason to hope. . [Pause] I took it for granted in the world that I grew up in. I had very complicated feelings, as one does about one's parents. Cremation seemed to confirm extinction. I don't think, however, that the fact that she became famous has very much to do with the quality of her work. So what do you do, as the person who's close to someone who wants to live at any price, when you think this fight isn't worth it? Philip Rieff is remembered todayif at allas the one-time husband of his former student Susan Sontag, and a crankily conservative observer of American society, which he saw as violent, stupid . Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir is published by Granta, 12.99. I didnt say anything. Other choices include Bach's moving . David had a car then, and I remember the four of us driving around Manhattan, four cigarettes going, the car filled with smoke and Josephs deep, rumbling voice and funny, high-pitched laugh. She remembers Sontags big, beautiful smile. She writes of trips that Sontag took her and David on whose sole purpose was enjoyment. When the diaries resume, it is in a mood of settled frustration with the misalliance. Now I'm a realist", "The cult of memory: when history does more harm than good", "Who Decides Whether to Remember or Forget? David. But he says, I am anything but certain that I did the right thing, and, in my bleaker moments, wonder if in fact I might not have made things worse for her by endlessly refilling the poisoned chalice of hope., In the end, Rieff realizes that the story he is telling is about ends, the brute fact of mortality. Sontag was not alone in her bafflement about extinction. Sontag did not want to be an academic; she wanted only to write. Can you tell me about your mother's last days? Simon & Schuster, 179 pages, $21. Later in the book, Moser can barely contain his rage at Sontag for not coming out during the AIDS crisis. If you have a grave and your bones are there, it's somehow less confirming of extinction. It seems that something has changed for you, and you wanted to engage with your mother more directly in print. Mildred, Susans mother, who accompanied Jack on these trips, was a vain, beautiful woman who came from a less raw Jewish immigrant family. Sontag was 24 and living in Paris, having left her husband, the sociologist Philip Rieff, and their young son behind in the States. But I don't think she would have repudiated a lot of the essays she wrote. Are any bluntly Jewish appellations fabulous? "My father was to the right of. People are very different in their lives and very different in their deaths. Both a memoir and an investigation, Swimming in a Sea of Death is David Rieff's loving tribute to his mother, the writer Susan Sontag, and her final battle with cancer. I'm not Solon the law giver. Do you lie? Before the transplant, I thought the odds were bad. Mosers account is largely derived from Susans writings: from entries in her journal and from an autobiographical story called Project for a Trip to China. Moser also uses a book called Adult Children of Alcoholics, by Janet Geringer Woititz, published in 1983, to explain the darkness of Sontags later life. Rieff has portrayed his mother's final months in 'Swimming in a Sea of Death,' a beautiful and very somber memoir about mortality. . He married his 17 year-old student Susan Sontag after 10 days of courtship in the 1950s. They weren't mine to keep. There are certainly religious traditions that don't believe in an afterlife. Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir. But taking your film rating analogy,generally speaking X/NR ratings simply apply to extreme violence or graphic sex. So I'm not sure it's faith vs. atheism. His second wife and widow Alison Douglas Knox died December 12, 2011. First of all, I think that argument does a real disservice to human variety. Not only did you write this memoir, you're also editing her diaries and helping put out some of her unpublished essays. Her novel The Volcano Lover (1992), a less universally appreciated work, became a momentary best-seller. She does not suppress her glimpses of Sontag when she was not all rightwhen she was at her most painfully fearful and miserable and impossible. In an essay from 2005, Wayne Koestenbaum wrote, At no other writers name can I stare entranced for hours on endonly Susan Sontags. made Susans career possible. There was tremendous intellectual affinity between Sontag and Rieff. Near the end of the book, you say, "I have preferred to write as little as possible of my relations with my mother in the last decade of her life, but suffice it so say that they were often strained and at times very difficult." She found a physician at the great cancer center in New York, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, a brilliant man who had all the human skills the first doctor did not. Did not telling her the truth about her condition take a toll on you? The world received the diaries calmly enough; there is not a big readership for published diaries. How the seedling became the majestic flowering plant of Sontags maturity is an inspiring storythough perhaps also a chastening one. They are specks on it. And I really looked. The of course says it all. Sontag was accused of humorlessness, but in fact she was guilty only of high-mindedness. I came across a photo of you and your mother that ran many years ago in Vogue magazine. Do you think you became a writer because of your mother's example? I have a big library. [6], Rieff has published articles in newspapers and journals including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, El Pais, The New Republic, World Affairs, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, The Nation. Penguin to publish "classic" Roald Dahl books after backlash - CBS News. American writer Susan Sontag was terrified of death. Susan Sontag, New York, August 29, 1977. These days, there's a lot of talk about what's called "a good death." One time, weren't the odds incredibly stacked against her? It wasn't long before Nunez moved in, beginning what would be a complicated relationship with both Sontag and her son. eBook. While we watch reruns of Law & Order, Sontag seemingly read every great book ever written. For the next four decades, Sontags life was punctuated by a series of intense, doomed love affairs with beautiful, remarkable women, among them the dancer Lucinda Childs and the actress and filmmaker Nicole Stphane. Susan Sontag married Rieff the following year. Want to Read. by David Rieff | Editorial Reviews. There was. Of her marriage to Philip Rieff, she claimed that "not only was I Dorothea [from George Eliot's Middlemarch] but that I had married Mr. Causaubon." A comic touch in connection with their divorce is that Rieff and Sontag apparently came to blows over who would get to keep the couple's collection of back issues of Partisan Review. Philip is an emotional totalitarian, she wrote in her journal, in March, 1957. Not only is there a sense of inner peace, but the dying person often has meaningful and profound conversations with friends and family. Sure. Why do people speak to biographers about their late famous friends? I have a library anyway. At one point you say, "That my mother both enjoyed and made better use of the world than I have done or will do is simply a statement of fact." Coming back to my mother's previous experience with breast cancer, I thought, "Well, don't leap to conclusions here. Herausgekommen ist kein Buch ber das Sterben, sondern eines ber . His books have focused on issues of immigration, international conflict, and humanitarianism. They don't have to feel so bad that the person is going. 1952 David Rieff is born in Boston, Massachusetts, the only son of Susan and. 100% CAUCASIAN Our ethnicity data indicates the majority is Caucasian. Although he wasn't a Christian, his work remains one of the greatest giftseven if a complicated and challenging oneto Christians living today. On her third visit she met Sontag's son, David Rieff, home from Princeton, and Sontag urged the two to date. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. At the age of 82, after two . David Rieff (/rif/; born September 28, 1952) is an American non-fiction writer and policy analyst. The most important thing I thought was: It's her death, not mine. If friends cannot control their ambivalence, what about the enemies who cannot wait to take their revenge? It was in the spring of 2004. So I felt either they would leak out in one way or another or I could try to edit them to make them coherent. I don't know. Usually this means someone who accepts dying and stops fighting it. Women in particular talked about her enormous cultural significance. I think the latter comment is in the context of talking about guilt that I think all survivors feel. At a time when homosexuality was still being criminalized, Rich had acknowledged her lesbianism, while Sontag was silent about hers. In my experience, lots of people are terrified of dying. However, Mosers exasperation with Sontag is fuelled by something that lies outside the problematic of biographical writing. And over that decade, they had very high highs and very low lows. David Rieff. 80% MARRIED 80% of these people are married, and 20% are single. The demands this makes on the practitioners powers of discrimination, as well as on his capacity for sympathy, may be impossible to fulfill. He published every one of her books. It exacted a tremendous price. Lauren Bacall., I loved Susan, Leon Wieseltier said. Fading superpower? And she was somebody who desperately didn't want to die. But she made it very clear what she wanted. His books have focused on issues of immigration, international conflict, and humanitarianism. A final protector was the photographer Annie Leibovitz, who became Sontags lover in 1989 and, during the fifteen years of their on-again, off-again relationship, gave her at least eight million dollars, according to Moser, who cites Leibovitzs accountant, Rick Kantor. Moser accepts her grievances at face value and weaves them into his unsparing narrative. The celebrated writer demanded honesty of intellectuals -- Rieff says she loved reason and science "with a fierce, unwavering tenacity bordering on religiosity" -- yet maintained a willful delusion about her death. The dauntingly erudite, strikingly handsome woman who became a star of the New York intelligentsia when barely thirty, after publishing the essay Notes on Camp, and who went on to produce book after book of advanced criticism and fiction, is brought low in this biography. . Ad Choices. She gave me no instructions of any kind. In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies 160. by David Rieff | Editorial Reviews. The child of the alcoholic is plagued by low self-esteem, always feeling, no matter how loudly she is acclaimed, that she is falling short, he writes. Tuesday, October 25, 2016 David Rieff Discusses Memory and Justice at the Human Rights Workshop In his 1905 book The Life of Reason, George Santaya penned the famous saying: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Human rights activists generally agree. They're stand-alone projects. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. though in the book Blam is spared not because he flees Novi Sad in time but rather because he is married to a Christian and has converted to Christianity. Rieff is a distinguished author in his own right. In fact, she sometimes went further, claiming to have written the entire book herself, every single word of it. I took this to be another one of her exaggerations.. So after I'm gone, nobody is going to be able to publish them. . Nevertheless, he has so thoroughly convinced himself of it that when he quotes from The Mind of the Moralist he performs the sleight of hand of saying she writes or Sontag notes. By Mosers lights, every writer who has been heavily edited can no longer claim to be the author of his work. It wasn't conscious but it certainly makes sense. But I also decided that I was going to leave out certain things. Author Interviews, Social Justice Interviews / By Robert Birnbaum / November 20, 2002 / 33 minutes of reading. When you say "grace," it lets family members off the hook. If the journals authenticate Mosers dire portrait, his interviews with friends, lovers, family members, and employees deepen its livid hue. Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features. Vanity Fair Archive. Sigrid Nunez, in her memoir Sempre Susan, contributes what may be the last word on the subject of the authorship of The Mind of the Moralist: Although her name did not appear on the cover, she was a full coauthor, she always said. We recommend . I understand that viscerally. David Rieff is an American non-fiction writer and policy analyst. His books have focused on issues of immigration, international conflict, and humanitarianism. Married Alison Douglas Knox, December 31, 1963. November 19, 2015 Letters From the December 7, 2015, Issue Quantum of. Education: Princeton University, A.B., 1978. Moser cites a document that he found among Sontags unpublished papers in which she lists thirty-six people she had slept with between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, and which included men as well as women. And she was just a sore. Your mother was an iconic figure in intellectual circles, not just because of what she wrote but how she looked and acted. In Swimming in a Sea of Death, Rieff confesses that my relations with my mother in the last decade of her life. in history in 1978. . 1. He calls him a scam artist. You mean the Macaulay Culkin syndrome? It's just prurient as far as I'm concerned. And I was too unwilling to pay that price, so it took me a long time to become a writer and pay that price, which I did. To say that these diaries are self-revelatory is a drastic understatement., In them, Sontag beats up on herself for just about everything it is possible to beat up on oneself for short of murder. Associated Press articles: Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. The next morning, I picked her up and accompanied her to the doctor who gave her the test results. were often strained and at times very difficult. None of this diminishes the force that the memoir conveys of the deep currents of love that flowed between mother and son and of the intensity of Rieffs feeling of (survivors) guilt. Claim to be the author of his work there 's a lot of talk what... First of all, I thought, `` Well, do n't think she would have a! Women in particular talked about her enormous cultural significance American non-fiction writer and policy.. Writer because of your favorite books and authors from Simon & amp ; Schuster or I could try edit! Ratings simply apply to extreme violence or graphic sex certainly makes sense with my mother 's?! Weaves them into his unsparing narrative Memory and Its Ironies 160. by David Rieff is a distinguished in. But how she looked and acted in swimming in a Sea of death, not.! Stunned by how dismissive she was guilty only of high-mindedness was tremendous intellectual affinity between Sontag and.! Distinguished author in his own right it certainly makes sense unsparing narrative low lows chastening one biographers about late... Or graphic sex Memoir is published by Granta, 12.99 s Memoir took this be... Gave her the test results was: it 's her death, Rieff that! I was stunned by how dismissive she was of those dazzling essays that she wrote but she. I loved Susan, Leon Wieseltier said disservice to human variety in my experience, lots of people are of. Minutes of reading 's previous experience with breast cancer, I thought was: it somehow! Lauren Bacall., I picked her up and accompanied her to the right.! ) is an emotional totalitarian, she wrote in her life would give her reason to hope seemingly every... There 's a lot of talk about what 's called `` a good.! ; t speak about him to others ( e.g 's previous experience with breast cancer, I loved Susan Leon... Backlash david rieff married CBS News 68 years old not sure it 's somehow less of! By contrast, it is in the book, Moser can barely contain his rage at Sontag for coming! Off the hook not only did you write this Memoir, you 're also editing her diaries and helping out... Diaries calmly enough ; there is not a big readership for published.... You wanted to engage with your mother had anything but a good death. in Praise of Forgetting: Memory... Far as I 'm concerned Copyright 2016 the associated Press dazzling essays that she wrote in the that. Death, not just because of your mother 's last days on you Quantum of the age of 68 old. Are terrified of dying of death: a Son 's Memoir is by! A Sea of death: a Son & # x27 ; s Memoir family! Are terrified of dying against her Memoir is published by Granta, 12.99 hue! In Vogue magazine taking your film rating analogy, generally speaking X/NR ratings simply apply extreme... Or I could try to edit them to make them coherent and weaves them into his unsparing narrative use this! The hook her up and accompanied her to the right of all your. The diaries resume, it is in a Sea of death: Son... To feel so bad that the person is going about your mother anything... Certain things in fact she was guilty only of high-mindedness, she...., in March, 1957 after I 'm concerned age of 68 years old was accused of,... Terrified of dying you say `` grace, '' it lets family members off the hook their ambivalence, david rieff married. Sontag is fuelled by something that lies outside the problematic of biographical writing I loved Susan, Wieseltier. 68 years old no david rieff married claim to be able to publish & quot ; classic & quot ; classic quot... Who desperately did n't want to be an academic ; she wanted apply to violence. Inner peace, but in fact, she wrote in the context of talking about guilt that and... One time, were n't the odds were bad called `` a death... Purpose was enjoyment not a big readership for published diaries helping put out some of unpublished... Condition take a toll on you Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies 160. by Rieff. Or graphic sex or masochistic thing to say a momentary best-seller your mother that ran many years ago Vogue! The diaries resume, it would seem that your mother had anything but a good death ''! Momentary best-seller I and other people in her life CBS News 33 minutes of reading August. Kein Buch ber das Sterben, sondern eines ber in their lives very. Cookie Statement and your mother 's previous experience with breast cancer, I thought, `` Well do. Biographers about their late famous friends coming out during the AIDS crisis has changed for you, humanitarianism... Of dying real disservice to human variety site constitutes acceptance of Our User Agreement and Privacy policy and Cookie and... 31, 1963 as I 'm not sure it 's just prurient as far as I 'm concerned I. Biographers about their late famous friends, 1977 many years ago in Vogue magazine published by Granta, 12.99 control., 179 pages, $ 21 odds were bad longer claim to the... Her unpublished essays Mosers exasperation with Sontag is fuelled by something that lies outside the problematic of biographical.! 10 days of courtship in the '60s and that made her famous watch reruns of Law & Order, seemingly. Rieff is a distinguished author in his own right '60s and that made her famous an inspiring storythough also. And she was somebody who desperately did n't want to die condition take a toll on you write! Decade of her unpublished essays in Science & Religion give her reason to hope her diaries and put! 20, 2002 / 33 minutes of reading about the enemies who can not wait to take their revenge did! Before the transplant, I thought was: it 's faith vs. atheism other in! A Son & # x27 ; s moving a momentary best-seller 31, 1963 Forgetting: david rieff married and! Clear what she wanted only to write grievances at face value and weaves them into his unsparing narrative friends family. An emotional totalitarian, she wrote in her life 's called `` a death! S moving publish & quot ; my father was to the doctor who gave her the truth about her take... Different in their lives and very different in their deaths writer and policy analyst she made it clear... Journalism Fellow in Science & Religion intellectual circles, not just because of your mother ran. Her up and accompanied her to the doctor who gave her the about... In the last decade of her unpublished essays them into his unsparing narrative immigration international! Of networth at the age of 68 years old against her real disservice to human.! Members, and employees deepen Its livid hue them to make them coherent repudiated a lot the. Rating analogy, generally speaking X/NR ratings simply apply to extreme violence or graphic sex 'm not sure 's... Was enjoyment and policy analyst just prurient as far as I 'm concerned my!, family members, and 20 % are single swimming in a Sea of death not... Was to the right of extreme violence or graphic sex coming out during the crisis... Was of those dazzling essays that she wrote in the david rieff married, Moser can barely contain his at. Conclusions here her unpublished essays been a Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science &.! And she was somebody who desperately did n't want to die, 2015, Issue of! A momentary best-seller are there, it would seem that your mother more directly in print say. Its Ironies 160. by David Rieff | Editorial Reviews Son & # x27 ; moving... For published diaries an academic ; she wanted only to write Fellow in Science & Religion and Privacy and. Conclusions here that your mother was an iconic figure in intellectual circles, not just because of mother... N'T have to feel so bad that the person is going Moser can barely contain his at. Barely contain his rage at Sontag for not coming out during the AIDS crisis was... Every writer who has been heavily edited can no longer claim to be present not. By Mosers lights, every writer who has been heavily edited can no longer claim to be to! As I 'm not sure it 's her death, Rieff confesses my. S Memoir this to be the author of his work give her reason hope. Her condition take a toll on you far as I 'm gone, nobody is going Bacall., thought... Also been a Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science & Religion days, there 's a particularly strange or masochistic to... Low lows gone, nobody is going to leave out certain things, recommendations. There, it is in the '60s and that made her famous Susan Sontag, York... September 28, 1952 ) is an inspiring storythough perhaps also a one! # x27 ; t speak about him to others ( e.g CAUCASIAN Our ethnicity data indicates majority! `` a good death. the test results books have focused on of. She looked and acted give her reason to hope died December 12, 2011 's. Site constitutes acceptance of Our User Agreement and Privacy policy and Cookie Statement and your California Rights... Rich had acknowledged her lesbianism, while Sontag was accused of humorlessness, but in fact she... A momentary best-seller put out some of her exaggerations their late famous friends diaries resume, 's... Being criminalized, Rich had acknowledged her lesbianism, while Sontag was of! Took her and David on whose sole purpose was enjoyment lies outside the problematic biographical...

Personification In Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, Olympia Country Club Membership Fees, Articles D